Johannesburg – The rand was weaker against the dollar in late trade on Wednesday as police fired tear gas on protesting miners at Amplats’ Rustenburg operations.
“The rand started off well this morning on the back of the Lonmin resolution yesterday. However‚ police firing tear gas at other striking miners at other mines is causing concerns amongst investors and thus the retracement of the rand to higher levels‚” said Mark Kalkwarf‚ a senior portfolio manager from the Iquad Group.
At 15:15 local time‚ the rand was bid at R8.2318 to the dollar from R8.1825 at Tuesday’s close. It was bid at R10.7174 to the euro from its previous close of R10.6764 and at R13.3406 against sterling from R13.2862 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3027 from $1.3042 at Tuesday’s close.
“The other reason for the weaker rand is the euro’s weakness‚ which is due to renewed concerns about Spain. Investors are worried that they are going to ask for more funding‚” Kalkwarf said.